This invention relates generally to golf balls, more particularly to a high visibility, light reflecting golf ball having particles of light reflective material on its outer surface to reflect sunlight thereby enhancing visibility of the ball during flight or at rest.
Many golfers, no matter what their skill level, are often frustrated by their inability to see the golf ball after hitting it down a fairway. Obviously, the golf ball is more difficult to see and find if it lands in the rough, trees, weeds or a water hazzard. It is particularly frustrating, however, to hit the ball relatively straight and still lose it on the fairway. This often occurs when the golfer loses sight of the ball in flight. A golfer can lose sight of the ball, in flight, because of the lighting conditions, cloud cover, or background. As the golf ball sails away from the golfer, it has a tendancy to blend into the background of the sky, particularly if the sky is cast in shades of white or light blue. If there is no cloud cover and the sun light is extremely bright, the golfer also may lose sight of the ball as a result of the sunlight. This happens because golf balls, although primarily manufactured or sold in the color white, are not intended to glisten or shine in sunlight. Once the golfer loses sight of the ball in flight, it is more difficult to locate the ball after it lands.
Moreover, if the ball lands in the rough, in the woods, or in shallow water it may be lost. A number of prior art golf balls have been introduced in an attempt to rememdy the problem of lost golf balls. For example, golf balls are now available in colors, such as bright orange, flourescent yellow, pink, blue and so on. U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,386 to Berard discloses a golf ball having a fluorescent material admixed in the cover material. The examples offered by a Berard include fluorescent material comprised of Day-Glo Saturn Yellow, and Lemon Yellow to color the golf balls a bright or fluorescent yellow. However, these colored balls are unsatisfactory, as far as remedying the problem of losing sight of the ball, for a number of reasons.
First, coloring the golf ball has very little to do with enhancing the visibility of the golf ball in flight. Colored golf balls do not shine, glisten or reflect sun light any better than a traditional white golf ball. Once the golf ball rises in the air, its color and the velocity make it generally indistigushable regardless of how it is colored. The main advantage of the colored golf ball is that it provides some enhanced visability on the fairway or in the rough. This is a result of the fact that the colored golf ball offers a color contrast to the surroundings. In most cases the golf ball is surrounded by green grass, green weeds, or perhaps brown or tan dried grass, weeds or leaves. An orange, yellow, pink, or blue ball may be more readily seen under these conditions, but is not designed in a way to actively attract your attention.
Second, many colored golf balls, for example pink or pastel blue balls are not designed to improve visability; these pastel color balls being provided in various colors for aesthetic and marketing reasons only. These balls are primarily marketed to female golfers.
Another disadvantage of the colored golf balls is that they do not appeal to many traditional golfers. The orange or yellow balls are simply too different from traditional white balls to be universally popular. Golfers who prefer to play with a traditional ball would prefer a traditional white ball with improved visability characteristics.
Because of the demand for traditional white golf balls, golf ball, manufacturers have attempted to improve or enhance the "whiteness" of the ball. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,794, to Yamada et al. discloses a golf ball with an enhanced white appearance. U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,795 to Melvin et al. provides a golf ball having optical brightners in the cover. U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,326 to Isaac et al. also provides for optical brightners in the golf ball clear coating. U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,458 to Proudfit discloses a golf ball with an optical brightner in the primer coat. U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,742 to Isaac et al. discloses an improvement in the appearance of golf balls consisting of an optical brightner in the clear coating. U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,870 to Concepcion et al. discloses a white painted balata covered golf ball using a white base urethane paint containing blue and violet agents to enhance the whiteness of the golf ball.
These inventions primarily address the ball's overall appearance and do very little to remedy the problem of losing sight of the golf ball in flight, for obvious reasons. Golf balls that have enhanced "whiteness" may have improved aesthetic appeal, but they do not glitter, shine or reflect sunlight any better than a conventional white golf ball. Even though a "whiter" golf ball may appear to be somewhat easier to spot on the fairway or in the rough due to the color contrast, a whiter ball has no special light reflecting properties to reflect sunlight so as to actively draw attention to it. As stated above, the main purpose of enhancing the brightness or whiteness of a golf ball is to make it aesthetically pleasing since the cover, either Surlyn.COPYRGT. or balata, is not a pure white in color.